Our Heroes celebrate DST in Afghanistan.

[Down1]

I am unclear if a group or just one of "our heroes" committed this massacre.
I have seen the story both ways.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has demanded an explanation from the US after an American soldier shot dead at least 16 civilians, including nine children, in a killing spree Karzai slammed as an "assassination" that "cannot be forgiven".
The victims, killed when the shooter entered their homes in two villages in southern Kandahar during the night, included at least three women, elderly men, and a child aged just two.
On Sunday the mother of the two-year-old also spoke out. Gul Bashra told the Associated Press: "They (Americans) killed a child, who was two-years-old. Was this child a Taliban (member)?
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-soldier-held-afghan-shooting-spree-074109101.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17330205

[old steel]

Sue the American government 1 trillion dollars for each of the dead. Take it right to the Hague.

That is something Americans can understand, suing in court for damages.

[Down1]

More info on the "group of soldiers" allegations.

An American soldier in Afghanistan murdered at least 16 civilians, including nine children, in a killing spree President Hamid Karzai called an “assassination” that “cannot be forgiven (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-soldier-held-afghan-shooting-spree-074109101.html).”
Some reports claim there were multiple U.S. soldiers involved (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSBRE82A02V20120311), who witnesses said were laughing throughout the massacre and appeared drunk. One Afghan father whose children were killed in the incident accused the soldiers of later burning the bodies. The soldiers entered a number of homes in two villages in southern Kandahar during the night, killing 16 and wounding nine, although there have been differing reports of the number of casualties. The victims included women, elderly men, and children, one of whom was just two years old.
On Sunday the mother of the two-year-old, Gul Bashra, told the Associated Press: “They (Americans) killed a child, who was two-years-old. Was this child a Taliban (member)? Believe me, I have not seen a two-year-old Taliban (member) yet. There is no Taliban here. They (America) are always threatening us with dogs and helicopters during night raids.”
The shooter has been taken into custody at a NATO base and U.S. officials tritely vowed to hold those responsible for the crime “fully accountable.”
“I am absolutely dedicated to making sure that anyone who is found to have committed wrong-doing is held fully accountable,” said General John Allen. Isaf Deputy Commander Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw said: “I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province. I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised Isaf military activity.”
But U.S. soldiers have gotten off easy for such crimes in the past. Eight of the nine U.S. soldiers charged with the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children in Haditha, Iraq were not convicted (http://news.antiwar.com/2012/01/26/iraqi-will-take-legal-action-against-us-soldiers-involved-in-haditha-massacre/). Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the slaughter, was convicted in a plea bargain of a single count of “dereliction of duty”. He was demoted to the rank of private and will serve no jail time (http://news.antiwar.com/2012/01/24/haditha-massacre-sentence-riles-iraqis-seen-as-insult/).
The “Kill Team” (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327) in Afghanistan, the army unit that planned and committed executions of multiple innocent, unarmed Afghan civilians, framing the dead as having been a threat, and mutilating their corpses as trophies received light sentences as well. All but the ringleader of the Kill Team received reduced sentences and are eligible for parole in a handful of years. Even the ringleader, described as evil by one of the other defendants, was sentenced to life in prison, but could be eligible for parole in less than 10 years (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/us/calvin-gibbs-convicted-of-killing-civilians-in-afghanistan.html).
A State Department diplomatic cable (http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/04/06GENEVA763.html#par2006) released by WikiLeaks revealed (http://news.antiwar.com/2011/08/29/cables-reveal-2006-summary-execution-of-civilian-family-in-iraq/) last year that U.S. forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed. Not a single American soldier was prosecuted.
In one notable and comparable (http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/12/family-us-troops-killed-civilians-in-latest-afghan-night-raid/) incident in February of 2010 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/asia/06afghan.html?hp), U.S. Special Operations Forces surrounded a house in a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan. Two civilian men exited the home to ask why they had been surrounded and were shot and killed. U.S. forces then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager).
U.S. troops, realizing their mistake, lied and tampered with the evidence at the scene (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/afghanistan). The initial claim, which was corroborated by the Pentagon, was that the two men were insurgents who had “engaged” the troops, and the three murdered women were simply found by U.S. soldiers, in what they described as an apparent honor killing. Investigations into the incident eventually forced the Pentagon to retract its initial story and issue an apology, but none of the soldiers were charged with a crime.
This latest incident occurs as the U.S. mission in Afghanistan appears to be slipping out of control. Unrest has been acute and widespread since U.S. soldiers were found to have burned Muslim holy books in a fire pit, and now that news of this latest killing spree has come out, insurgents are expected to take revenge.
Part of the reason the war has been seemingly unending is because of incidents like this, coupled with the daily suffering that war and occupation brings the ordinary population. The insurgency is impossible to quell because the U.S. has been creating more enemies every day.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/11/us-soldiers-massacre-16-afghan-civilians-in-killing-spree/

[nunaem]

I forgot who the good guys are. The taliban?

[k-os]

Disgusting.

[mick silver]

just wait till it start here then lets hear people say it Disgusting.

[Awoke]

I still see "Support our troops" stickers all over the effing place.

[Neuro]

What is 'DST'?

[Down1]

What is 'DST'?
Daylight Savings Time.

I am still unclear about this massacre.
I think they know any story other than "a stressed out loony did it" will result in the whole country going into open revolt.

[midnight rambler]

Daylight Savings Time.

I am still unclear about this massacre.
I think they know any story other than "a stressed out loony did it" will result in the whole country going into open revolt.

Yeah, it was the nefarious 'lone gunman'. He manages to do all sorts of shit and is very slippery.

[Down1]

This happened the day before the "lone gunmen" went on his rampage.

An airstrike by Nato-led forces in north-eastern Afghanistan killed three civilians and injured two others, a local police chief said on Saturday.

The incident took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa Province on Friday evening when five residents sitting in a garden were attacked by helicopters, Abdul Jalil, the district police chief said.He said the Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces mistook them for insurgents and fired on the group.

Two shopkeepers were killed on the spot and three others were injured.

"One of the injured elderly man died in the hospital later from the wounds he sustained during the airstrike," Jalil said.

He said villagers took to the streets and protested against the Nato forces on Saturday morning, but no hostilities were reported.http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1163612/

Mellonhead actually gets "it", at least on Afghanistan.

On “Fox News Sunday,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-candidate-gingrich-says-afghanistan-may-be-harder-deeper-problem-undoable-mission/2012/03/11/gIQAdkyA5R_story.html) said “we clearly have to investigate it,” and added that “We have to indicate clearly and convince the people of Afghanistan that justice will be done and we are not going to tolerate that kind of thing.”
Gingrich said the families of the victims should be compensated and sought to draw a distinction between the U.S. military and the Taliban.
“I think when those kinds of things happen, what makes us different from the Taliban or al-Qaeda, they target, killing civilians,” Gingrich said. “We work very hard not to have things like this happened and we have to live up to our standards and our values.”
Asked whether it is time for the United States to pull out of Afghanistan, Gingrich said “it’s very likely that we have lost — tragically lost the lives and suffered injuries to a considerable number of young Americans on a mission that we’re going to discover is not doable.”
During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Gingrich reaffirmed that it is time to draw the war to a close, saying “I don't think we have the willpower or the capacity to do the things you have to do to fundamentally change the region.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/afghanistan-shooting-lawmakers-gingrich-discuss-future-of-afghan-war/2012/03/11/gIQA0QDK5R_blog.html?tid=pm_politics_pop

If you read the article you will see McCain is still not getting "it".
He babbles on about 9/11.

[PlatinumBlonde]

just wait till it start here then lets hear people say it Disgusting.

Paging Randy Weaver and the Branch Davidians..

[Down1]

More on the multiple soldiers theory.

Jan Agha’s story is likely to be a particular focus of the massacre, because he says he believes more than one US soldier entered the house during the attack and “stayed in our house for a while.” Several other witness stories also speak of multiple attackers (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSBRE82A02V20120311). The US military is insisting there was only one gunman.
NATO has provided next to no information about the killings, with spokesman Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson saying “all we know so far is he left the base.” He added that an investigation of the “doings” is ongoing.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/11/witnesses-give-details-of-us-massacre-in-kandahar/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSBRE82A02V20120311

[Down1]

Even Karzai isn't buying the "lone gunman" story.

But the AP reported that Karzai, after meeting with relatives of some of the victims, pointed to one of the villagers and said: "In his family, in four rooms people were killed—children and women were killed—and then they were all brought together in one room and then set on fire. That, one man cannot do."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-calls-angry-karzai-white-house-papers-over-183319496.html

[Down1]

The lack of response is fueling conspiracy theories that are only worsening the impact of the massacre. Several villagers here insist the shooting was part of a broader operation.

U.S. authorities, trying to squash such rumors, showed their Afghan counterparts a video of the lone soldier surrendering at the base after the massacre, according to the Associated Press.
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/why_did_they_not_stop_the_killings/singleton/

Why don't they show video from the surveillance balloons for the whole 3 hour time frame this went down in ?
Lame.
Just like the 9/11 Pentagon still pics, when video is available.

[osoab]

Why would you make any of lambs for slaughter out as heros?....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiEZCqTo1Bg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiEZCqTo1Bg

[Down1]

Speaking today in a meeting with tribal elders and other top officials, Afghan President Hamid Karzai angrily condemned the US for its refusal to cooperate in the ongoing investigation into last weekend’s massacre of civilians in Kandahar Province.

“This has been going on for too long,” Karzai insisted, “this is by all means the end of the rope here.” The US has promised its own investigation of the attack, but has removed the accused from Afghanistan.

Karzai went on to say that his delegation rejected the current US narrative of a single shooter, and that “this was not carried out by one man and was a deliberate and intentional act.”

This isn’t a completely unwarranted claim. While the official US story is that a single staff sergeant committed the massacre all by himself and wandered back to base to turn himself in, multiple witnesses reported that several US soldiers were involved in the attack.

While the massacre has outraged Afghans, leading to calls for those responsible to face a public trial in the nation, the US has repeatedly sought to downplay it, saying that it mustn’t change the strategy of the occupation at all.

Officials have also tried to placate Afghan concerns by insisting that the still unnamed staff sergeant could face major punishment under US military law for the massacre, though since the Haditha massacre ended with myriad dropped charges and one man facing reduced rank, that pledge has little credibility.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/16/karzai-us-not-cooperating-in-massacre-probe/

Only thing MSM is "embedded" in is MIC butt.

[Down1]

Up to 20 US troops executed Panjwai massacre: probe
by Bashir Ahmad NaadimonMar 15, 2012 - 21:33

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): A parliamentary probe team on Thursday said up to 20 American troops were involved in Sunday’s killing of 16 civilians in southern Kandahar province.

The probing delegation includes lawmakers Hamidzai Lali, Abdul Rahim Ayubi, Shakiba Hashimi, Syed Mohammad Akhund and Bismillah Afghanmal, all representing Kandahar province at the Wolesi Jirga and Abdul Latif Padram, a lawmaker from northern Badakhshan province, Mirbat Mangal, Khost province, Muhammad Sarwar Usmani, Farah province.

The team spent two days in the province, interviewing the bereaved families, tribal elders, survivors and collecting evidences at the site in Panjwai district.

Hamizai Lali told Pajhwok Afghan News their investigation showed there were 15 to 20 American soldiers, who executed the brutal killings.

“We closely examined the site of the incident, talked to the families who lost their beloved ones, the injured people and tribal elders,” he said.

He added the attack lasted one hour involving two groups of American soldiers in the middle of the night on Sunday.

“The villages are one and a half kilometre from the American military base. We are convinced that one soldier cannot kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time, and the 16 civilians, most of them children and women, have been killed by the two groups.”
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2012/03/15/20-us-troops-executed-panjwai-massacre-probe

[midnight rambler]

I'm thinking this involves the same instigators (though not the same actors) as the 'mistaken' Koran burning.

[Down1]

Curiouser

Afghan Massacre Soldier ‘Doesn’t Remember’ Killings
Lawyer: No Proof Showing Bales Responsible
by Jason Ditz, March 20, 2012

Adding further intrigue to the impending charges against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales for the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province, his lawyer now says Bales “doesn’t remember” carrying out any massacres that night.
Bales’s attorney, John Henry Browne, went on to say that Bales appeared “confused” and that he had memories of that evening before and after the massacre, but nothing during the time of the attack. Bales apparently also downplayed the reports he was drunk, saying he had only a “few sips” of alcohol.

In commenting on the impending charges, Browne seemed to think the military had an uphill battle, noting that “they don’t have much proof of anything” and that the military hasn’t provided him with any evidence.

The military’s version has Bales wandering off base, hitting two villages some 8 km apart, massacring 16 Afghan civilians and burning a number of their corpses, then returning and immediately being captured by troops. The US insists Bales acted alone, while the Afghan government’s probe says more than a dozen of attackers were involved. Bales’s lack of memory will make it even more difficult to sort out this major difference.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/20/afghan-massacre-soldier-doesnt-remember-killings/

[Down1]

And curiouser.

Afghan Villagers Were Threatened by US Troops Ahead of Massacre
Witnesses: Troops Lined Up All Men From Mokhoyan, Told Them They'd 'Pay'
by Jason Ditz, March 20, 2012

The incongruous stories surrounding the March 11 massacre on Afghan civilians in two villages took another turn today, with reports from witnesses in Mokhoyan, one of the two villages targeted, that they were threatened by US troops just days before the massacre.
The witnesses say that troops rounded up all the men from the villages after a roadside bombing, lined them up against a wall, and told them they would “pay a price” for the attack.

The witnesses put the date of the bombing at either March 7 or 8. Previous stories had massacre suspect Robert Bales supposedly “upset” about a bombing in which one of his friends lost a leg.

The military would neither confirm or deny any bombings in the area, only insisting that they would investigate anything that might be related to the shootings. They likewise gave no comments about the threats in Mokhoyan.

If confirmed, the threats would also appear to support the Afghan probe’s version of the massacre, which had an organized group of over a dozen US troops carrying out the massacre, as opposed to a lone man, as the US maintains.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/20/afghan-villagers-were-threatened-by-us-troops-ahead-of-massacre/

[Down1]

Praise the Lord !
All is well.

Afghan Officials Change Story: Kandahar Massacre May Have Only Had One Shooter
Everybody Saw Several Troops, But No One Saw More Than One Shooter
by Jason Ditz, March 21, 2012

Afghan officials involved in the investigation in a March 11 Kandahar Massacre have changed their story, saying that there was no confirmation that multiple US soldiers took part in killing the 16 civilians.
“To my knowledge, everybody in the villages said only that somebody had told them that they had seen several foreign troops in the villagers where the shootings occurred,” noted one of the top district officials, “but nobody personally said that they had seen a group of troops in this incident. The evidence collected from the villagers was not enough to confirm that there was more than one shooter.”

Previous reports said that more than a dozen troops had conducted a “night raid” against the two villages targeted. The US has insisted that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales snuck off the base and acted alone in the attack.

There has been no explanation of the “several troops” discrepancy, and the US government has so far provided no evidence in its case against Bales, leaving plenty of opportunities for speculation about exactly what happened late that evening in Kandahar.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/21/afghan-officials-change-story-kandahar-massacre-may-have-only-had-one-shooter/

[Santa]

This reminds me of the My Lai massacre. When one atrocity gets leaked to the world in order to conceal a far greater atrocity.
In Vietnam, the greater atrocity was the Phoenix Project where hundreds of thousands of innocent victims were disappeared, tortured, experimented on and murdered. You know, winning hearts and minds... No one ever talked about that.

[DMac]

This reminds me of the My Lai massacre. When one atrocity gets leaked to the world in order to conceal a far greater atrocity.
In Vietnam, the greater atrocity was the Phoenix Project where hundreds of thousands of innocent victims were disappeared, tortured, experimented on and murdered. You know, winning hearts and minds... No one ever talked about that.

True...reminds me of the torture memos. Everyone was up in arms over waterboarding and no one mentioned the raping of children in front of their families part.

[Down1]

These people are not "getting it" yet.
Someone needs to go over there and straighten them out.
We are all about Trayvon now.

Afghan Witnesses Say Sgt. Robert Bales Did Not Act Alone
by John Glaser, March 29, 2012
Child witnesses to the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales say there was more than one U.S. soldier party to the crime, contradicting the story told by the Pentagon.

Yalda Hakim, a journalist for SBS Dateline in Australia, was born in Afghanistan and immigrated to Australia as a child. She is the first international journalist to interview the surviving witnesses, which she was able to do after American officials tried to prevent her contact with the village witnesses.

An 8-year old Afghan girl named Noorbinak, according to the MSNBC, “told Hakim that the shooter first shot her father’s dog. Then, Noorbinak said in the video, he shot her father in the foot and dragged her mother by the hair. When her father started screaming, he shot her father, the child says. Then he turned the gun on Noorbinak and shot her in the leg.”

“One man entered the room and the others were standing in the yard, holding lights,” Noorbinak said in the interview.

A brother of one of the victims said the children who witnessed saw many soldiers. “They don’t know whether there were 15 or 20, however many there were,” he said in the interview.

Army officials have repeatedly denied that others were involved in the massacre, maintaining that Bales acted alone.


http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/29/afghan-witnesses-say-sgt-robert-bales-did-not-act-alone/

[Down1]

Let's set it up so our hero Sgt. can walk after a little "treatment".

US Military ‘Can’t Access’ Massacre Site to Collect Evidence
'Security Issues' Cited, But How Will Prosecution Work?
by Jason Ditz, March 29, 2012
The Obama Administration’s promises to prosecute Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales over the Kandahar massacre seem to be in serious doubt today, as US military officials revealed that they haven’t been able to access the sites of any of the killings.
Officials say that “security issues” have kept them from going to any of the locations in the two villages near their base, and that they haven’t been able to get formal permission from the villages in the district to do so either.

Bales’ lawyer, John Henry Browne, is expecting these circumstances to dramatically change the face of the trial, noting that “they haven’t been back there. So there’s no crime scene, there’s no DNA, there’s no fingerprints, there’s no confession.” Bales is facing 17 counts of murder and other charges over the massacre.

The narrative surrounding the massacre has gotten considerably more complex in recent days, with officials now trying also to explain how Bales returned to base mid-massacre to take a break, and was able to wander off for a second round of killings.

There are a lot of questions to answer about the massacre, and Bales claims he doesn’t remember anything about it. With the military so far unable to secure any solid evidence, the entire case seems shaky.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/29/us-military-cant-access-massacre-site-to-collect-evidence/

[mamboni]

America: Winning Hearts and Minds since 1917

Karma is a real bitch. We should be worried.

[Rubberchicken]

That's like the sign at Vandenberg AFB in the 80's. "Peace is our mission." That's why they had so many ways to kill people. I wonder if that's still posted above the entrance to the base?
My dad flew helicopter gunships in Vietnam. Shot at, shot up, and shot down. He had a saying. "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity"

[Down1]

Long story.

The first story was shaky from the start, that Sgt. Robert Bales "sneaked" off a combat outpost into hostile, landmined territory in the middle of the night, walked north a little over a half mile to a village, engaged in bloody murder, then walked back that half mile, past the base, and another mile south, killed more people, then turned himself in at the gate, all within an hour. Sharp-eyed bloggers did the math and recalled from other reports that Bales has part of a foot missing from a wound in Iraq, making the feat all the more remarkable.

Among the dead were a number of children, including a two-year-old.

Two weeks later the Pentagon's story changed, and Bales had managed to sneak off the base twice over a longer timeline:
http://warisacrime.org/content/msnbc-evidence-multiple-shooters-night-raid-sgt-bales-case

[Neuro]

The most rational explanation at this point seems to be it never happened. War in Absurdistan!

[DMac]

That's like the sign at Vandenberg AFB in the 80's. "Peace is our mission." That's why they had so many ways to kill people. I wonder if that's still posted above the entrance to the base?
My dad flew helicopter gunships in Vietnam. Shot at, shot up, and shot down. He had a saying. "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity"

That's a great quote.

"Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity"